WERAN 49/91: Greece: Alleged torture of Mehmet Hayrettin Arat by members of the Athens Drugs Squad in June 1991

Mehmet Hayrettin Arat, a Turkish Kurd, was arrested on 25 June 1991. He was reportedly abused at the point of arrest and the alleged torture continued over a period of some 17 hours at the Drugs Squad Headquarters. He was reportedly subjected to falanga (beating of the soles of the feet), mock execution, threats, sexual abuse, suffocation with a plastic bag and being beaten and thrown about "like a football". He was brought before a senior police officer on the morning of 26 June: this officer allegedly tried to make Mehmet Hayrettin Arat confess by threatening to say that he had been found with a kilogramme of heroin and to ensure that he would be imprisoned "for 20 years". He is now in provisional detention in Korydallos Prison, awaiting trial on drugs charges.